Cautionary Tales – The V2 Trilogy
We’re releasing an epic three-part series about the V2 rocket – a terrifying and also bafflingly expensive weapon. How did Nazi Germany ever decide to build such a thing, and what does it teach us about grandiose projects today? Also – what does the shameful underbelly of the V2 programme tell us about complicity in the most dreadful crimes?
The full series is available to Pushkin+ subscribers. I’ve been working on it for more than a year, and I’m very proud of the results. If you’re not a paying subscriber (and I understand, it’s not for everyone) then you might still enjoy today’s impassioned discussion with our in-house WWII expert, founding producer Ryan Dilley, featuring contributions from Tom Lehrer.
A full episode will be on the main ad-supported feed next week, never fear.
[Apple] [Spotify] [Stitcher]
Further reading
Essential sources for this series:
Murray Barber V2: The A4 Rocket from Peenemunde to Redstone
Norman Longmate Hitler’s Rockets
Jean Michel Dora
Michael Neufeld The Rocket and the Reich
Michael Neufeld Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War
Michael Neufeld also kindly agreed to be interviewed as background for the series.
Other sources include:
RV Jones Most Secret War
Steven Zaloga V1 Flying Bomb 1942-52
Steven Zaloga V2 Ballistic Missile 1942-52
Freeman Dyson Disturbing the Universe
Walter Dornberger V2
Daniel Lang “A Romantic Urge” The New Yorker 21 April 1950
Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner How Big Things Get Done
Diane Tedeschi interview with Michael Neufeld Smithsonian Magazine 1 Jan 2008
Michael Neufeld “Wernher von Braun, the SS and Concentration Camp Labor: Questions of Moral, Political and Criminal Responsibility.” German Studies Review. 25:57–78. 2002
Adam Tooze Wages of Destruction
Dean Reuter The Hdden Nazi
Brian Crim Our Germans
Annie Jacobsen Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program That Brought Nazi Scientists to America
Steve Ossad “The Liberation of Nordhausen Concentration Camp“
Amy Shira Teitel “The Nazi Smoke and Mirrors Escape That Launched American Into The Space Age” Motherboard, 15 September 2012
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Originally posted on: https://timharford.com/2023/07/cautionary-tales-the-v2-trilogy/